60th Anniversary Franklin Event Completely Sold Out

A sold-out crowd of more than 400 CEOS and senior executives from the printing, advertising, publishing and graphics community filled The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan to capacity last Wednesday evening to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of The Franklin Event, sponsored by Printing Industries Alliance (PIA).

Howard Draft, Executive Chairman of Draftfcb, the world’s largest global marketing enterprise, accepted the coveted Franklin Award for Distinguished Service, the highest honor bestowed by the industry on an individual for his or her extraordinary achievements and contributions to national and international advancement. Past recipients include numerous U.S. Presidents, statesmen, diplomats, and outstanding individuals such as Norman Rockwell, Margaret Mead, Henry Luce, John Glenn, Walter Cronkite, and Hyman Rickover.

Marty Maloney, Franklin Event Co-Chair, in his introduction of Howard Draft said: “Howard has the uncanny ability to attract consumers on behalf of his clients and then connect with them and keep them. He totally gets behavior based marketing.”

PIA President Tim Freeman bestowed upon Dwight E. Vicks, III, the John Peter Zenger Medal, awarded to an individual employed in the graphics community with PIA’s trade territory who has exhibited exemplary character outside the workplace, in the form of selfless courage, charity, activism or service. Mr. Vicks, whose wife Jean was diagnosed several years ago with a rare type of cancer, the treatment for which was known to only a handful of doctors in the world, established in 2007 the International Thyroid Oncology Group, a collaboration of leading physicians and researchers throughout the world, who are seeking to find a cure.

Partial proceeds from the event were given out in advance in the form of two new Franklin Award Scholarships to graphic arts students Jessica Sedona and Joanne Raymund.

Readers are encouraged to visit PIA’s website during October where award presentations and acceptance speeches will be featured through photo galleries and YouTube videos.